Improvement in attaching sleigh-thills



w. FAIRWEATHER. ATTACHING SLEIGH-THILLS.

No.186,66 8. Patented. Jan. 30,1877.

- Fig.1.

- Wiznesses- V Inventor,-

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIcn WILLIAM FAIRWEATHER, OF SUSSEX, NEW BUN SWIOK, CANADA.

IMPROVEMENT IN ATTACHING SLElGH-THILLS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N o. l S6,66, dated January 30, 1877; application filed August 26, 1876.

I To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM FAIRWEATH- ER, of Sussex, in the county of Kings, Province of New Brunswick, and Dominion of Canada, druggist, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sleigh-Shifting Apparatus, which improvements are fully set forth in thefollowing specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

The object of my invention is so to attach the shafts to sleighs that they may be placed centrally forward when used on a single or well-beaten track, and readily set to either side, and to any required distance, when driven upon roads formed by the passage of double teams in the deep snow, so that the horse may avoid the unbroken ridge usually found in the center, and also that sleighs, in meeting, may pass each other without inconvenience, by turning either to the right or left, as the custom of the place may be. v

In the drawings hereto attached, Figure 1 is a top view or plan of an apparatus embodying my invention/ Fig. 2 is a front view of the same. Fig. 3 is alongitudinal vertical section, and Fig; 4 shows the apparatus fixed in its place on the front of a sleigh.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

Across the front of the sleigh, and in the most convenient position, a cross-bar, B, is fixed. This bar is provided With two longitudinal slots, 0 0, as shown in the drawings,

and upon it is fastened, in any required position, the similarly-slotted bar A, by means of two large-headed screw-bolts, D D, and thumbscrews E E, the bolts passing through the slots in the bars.

The bars may be made of any suitable material; and if either is made of wood, the edges of the slots can be protected by the metallic plates F F. The shafts are fastened, in the usual manner, to the bar A.

By this simple arrangement the shafts may be placed centrally ahead of the sleigh, or at any required distance to the right or left, and there firmly secured, without even the trouble of gettingout of the sleigh.

1n localities where there is evidently no occasion to shift the shafts, except to one side, the slotting of one of the bars" may be dispensed with.

I make no claim to the manner in which the apparatus is attached to the sleigh, or the shafts to the bar A; nor do I claim to have invented either binding-screws or slotted bars but I do claim as myinvention and desire to secure by Letters Patent The combination, substantially as specified, of the slotted bars A and B with the bolts D D and thumb-screws E E.

WILLIAM FAIRWEATHER.

Witnesses:

HENRY A. WHITE, FENEMORE E. MORTON. 

